slowly rose and automatically straightened her suit jacket. She looked briefly at the closed door, then turned back. “Rebekah, what is going on? Who is he?”
“Mrs. Frazier, this is Special Agent Savich, FBI, and you remember Agent Hammersmith. We’re here to see my grandmother.”
Mrs. Frazier nodded and held out her hand to the big man she’d never seen before. Savich stepped forward, shook her hand, and gave her his credentials. He had a hard hand, and were those scars on his finger pads? She studied his ID, handed it back to him. He smiled at her, and it changed his face utterly, made her wonder if her divorced daughter might take him out for a drink. He said, “Mrs. Frazier, a pleasure. Rebekah has told us how kind you’ve been to her over the years.”
She didn’t know what to say to that, only smiled and nodded. She saw Agent Hammersmith was still looking hard as a hanging judge. And Rebekah? She looked resolute, ready for battle. They were here to deliver bad news. She knew trouble when she saw it, and trouble was standing in front of her. She said slowly, “So you’re here to see your grandmother? All of you, together?”
“Yes. Please see we aren’t disturbed, Mrs. Frazier. I—I’m very sorry about this.”
Olivia could only nod. She watched Rebekah open Mrs. Clarkson’s door, watched her chin go up as she marched in, followed by the two agents. The door closed. Olivia sat back down and did what she did best, according to her daughter—she pulled the knitting out of her bottom drawer and worried.
Gemma Clarkson slowly rose as Agent Hammersmith and Rebekah walked into her office, a stranger flanking them. She made no move to come out from behind her desk. She said, “You must be Agent Savich? I spoke to you by phone on Monday. I pictured you in my mind, you know, I always do when I have only a voice to give me clues.” She paused, studied his face, and said slowly, “I imagined you’d be a big man.”
He stepped forward to hand her his creds. “I’m Agent Savich.”
She waved them away. “Why are you three here so early on this chilly Wednesday morning?” She paused, pointed to chairs. There were only two set in front of her desk. She waited until Agent Hammersmith fetched another chair, carried it over, and sat down. All three looked at her a moment, unspeaking. Savich leaned forward in his chair. “Mrs. Clarkson, we’ve been looking into your company finances. Since Clarkson United Industries is privately held, it took time and effort to put together some of the pieces, but we now know your company has suffered financial setbacks recently, severe ones. But your own situation is rather desperate because you expanded by borrowing, which didn’t work out at all for you. You have a large bank loan due in several weeks, and you’ll be hard-pressed to pay it.”
Gemma gave him a rictus of a smile. He had no clue as to what she was thinking. “You have been busy, Agent Savich. Let me just say that this company has been in business longer than you’ve been alive, and our books are really none of your business.”
“Perhaps not, Mrs. Clarkson, except it might explain the puzzle of why you’re suddenly so interested in getting your hands on a great deal of money. It’s a puzzle that started more than twenty-five years ago, before Nate’s murder in 1995.”
“There is no puzzle,” Gemma said. “Nate wasn’t murdered; his death was ruled an accident. He was drunk and fell overboard. Now, I want to know why you three are here. I have a budget meeting shortly, so say what you have to say and leave.” She shot a look of ill-disguised dislike at Rebekah, a look from Rebekah’s oldest memories. She felt her familiar child’s guilt that it must be her fault. She remembered the endless questions she’d wanted to ask but was too afraid to, and then she’d simply closed her grandmother out of her mind and her life.
Gemma said, never looking away from Rebekah’s face, her voice hard and flat, “Particularly you, Rebekah. Look at you, a little Joan of Arc, leading your troops into battle. What did you come to complain about this time? I know it’s not about where your next meal’s coming from or how you will pay the rent. Did someone try to kidnap you again? Were you saved by another strong man?”